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Published: September 2nd 2008
Charm
Walking back to Coco from CharmSawatdee kaaaaaaaaaaa
Carol and Rich wanted me to write the whole of their Koh PhaNgan blog for them which I thought was particularly lazy its not like they have to do much more than lie on a beach and drink beer now is it, but I did say I would write some of it being as I was with them for 2 weeks. So please bare with the fact that its me (Kit) writing now am sure that Carol and Rich will put little comments in also as I go along……………………..
Where to start…. Carol picked me up in Koh Samui late on Monday the 11th August after some 20 hours of travelling which included 3 flights and lots of “not so good” airplane food. So I was very glad to be in Thailand and be eating some nice and spicy noodles and drinking Chang the local beer. I think we spent most of the evening catching up on news from home and then the next day we got the 8am ferry from Big Buddha pier over to Koh PhaNgan where we were meeting Estelle and Rich for breakfast.
After lots of hugging and comparing of Carol and
beer
First beer at Coco Bar Estelle’s tattoo’s - Same Same but Different we set off to Vantana’s which was legendary for its sausage and egg doorsteps only to find it was shut due to it being the Queens Birthday. (which also meant limited drinking for all bars, stores etc!! ARGH!!) So after much debate we decided to go to Coco Gardens which was to be our home for the next 6 nights and eat there instead. Good choice as Rich got boiled eggs and soldiers with proper egg cups!!!! 4 minutes perfic (just as pa johnson taught me!)
Rich or “Dito” short for Ricardito as he shall now be called, Carol and Estelle had to move all their stuff from their jungle houses to Coco, once done we headed down to Charm, a resort just down the beach to use their pool. We were also meeting Christel and Sheena there. Was so cool to be with everyone again, although it had only been a couple of months since I had seen Carol and Rich, it had been nearly a year since seeing Sheena and Estelle. After Charm we had our first beers at Coco and I got to meet Ade one of the owners.
nightmarket
In the nightmarket choosing our Red Snapper Poor guy, don’t know if he realised what he was letting himself in for with us lot being there.
So the first night on Koh Phangan was to be a long one, who needs sleep and to get over jet lag anyway……………………. We ate in the nightmarket in Thong Sala, Carol and I shared the most amazing Red Snapper… then we went to Jumunji where everything in the bar comes from bits washed up on the beach, even the chairs are made up of bottles. It’s a wicked place run by T, his wife Bim and his brother Roo. Graham Gold (legendary UK DJ) came down to meet us there too. I started really suffering from jet lag and about 8 wanted to go home, try just another hour said Carol so I battled through and about 9:30 we went back to Coco - where the bar was open!!!!!!!!! Thought I would stay up for just the one……….. well several beers, 3 sambuca’s(carol, Graham and Estelles faults) and a number of vodka’s later… Estelle was behind the bar with a tea towel on her head, I had swapped Ade’s ipod for mine so we could listen to some rock
NIghtmarket
Rich choosing his spring rolls music and we were dancing round the bar. I believe I even phoned my Mum at some point which Ade happily reminded me the next day. I think it was just myself Estelle, Panda and Ade at the bar in the end and we left about 3:30am.
The next day was spent sunbathing at Charm and then watching a film in Jumunji where they have a great cinema complete with crash mats and a phone so you can call the bar for more beer. Although Stel was absent on a date for a couple of hours ;p so she missed the film.
Thursday 14th we hired a jeep and went up to Haad Salad and Haad Maed as they have much nicer beaches up there and in the evening we went to Amsterdam bar which is high in the mountain to watch the sunset. Its also a very good place to pick up a new pair of Haviana flip flops……. Sampled the Coco Burger tonight………Job 2 Do - do do do …. Were playing at the resort down the beach from us tonight and we got Ade to turn his music off so we could sit at Coco
Snapper
The BBQ's Red Snapper and listen. I preferred the Thai Rock Cover band that played first they were awesome.
On Friday we headed up to Utopia a resort at the north of the island which let you use their pool for 100 Baht and they gave you a nice clean towel to use too. View was wicked. It was quite scary driving up there and Dito made very good use of the 4 wheel drive just as well as Carol and I wouldn’t have had a clue how to use it. Estelle joined us later as she could not get out of bed. We had intended to do a cooking course today but had forgotten to book it….time just gets away from you when you are doing nothing its really weird. Rich tried to get me drunk in the nightmarket tonight by suggesting a large Chang before food while Carol and Estelle had to get over their craving for lasagne and pizza further down the road. Stopped into Jumunji for a couple on the way home and then Coco of course. Where I had a slight giggling fit trying to get out of the jeep.
Saturday was the day of the Full
Girls
Sheena, Estelle, Kit and Carol Moon party and stupidly we had booked a boat trip from Haad Rin for that day. When we got there, there were so many people crammed into this long tail boat we refused to get on. So we did some shopping and then went back to Thong Sala to prepare for the party. It was all very exciting we all got painted up with luminous paint and well lubricated at Coco’s before we headed on down to Haad Rin at about 12:30am. We went to Joy bar where our friends T and Graham Gold were DJ’ing for the night and I got to have my first bucket! Wahooooooo. Myself, Carol, Dito, Estelle, Sheena, Por, Chris and Christine all ventured onto the beach. OMG it was soooo busy you had to hold hands or you could quite easily lose each other. Each bar along the beach played a different time of music, you could buy buckets in front of all of them and there was just a frenzy of semi naked bodies gyrating in the sand all covered in different coloured paint. After dancing to some hip hop we moved along to where they were doing the fire shows which were
relxing
Rich relaxing in the hammock at Coco much more fun. Watching all the farang get burnt by the flaming skipping rope! Surely they could see it was a bad idea to try……
Ricardito, Carol and I being the old timers we are decided we had had enough of the beach and went back to Joy bar for a bit before watching the sun come up from The Rock which is where it all began. We nearly went home at 4:30 am but crack of light around 5 ish gave us the boost we needed to push on through til dawn. As the sun came up, couples that were stuck together in the sea became aware of the boys that were pee’ing in the water beside them, you could see all the people staggering around not really knowing which way there were going and of course there was the sea of passed out bodies on the sand that people were stepping over and taking picture of. We found Christine and the 4 of us decided to head on back to the bungalows and made sure that we got into a taxi first as they were cramming so many in it really wasn’t safe. 2 people in fact
Bar
Estelle with no idea that Ade is behind her were hanging off the back of ours the majority of the way home. As you can imagine most of the next day was written off after going to bed at 8am but we managed to drag ourselves to Charm to top up the tans and then off to The Masons Arms, an English owned pub in Thong Sala based on the guys mum’s pub back home in old blighty. They served Sunday Roast with proper English gravy. Carol was so looking forward to going there that she started hallucinating that she was showering in gravy - very scary thought.
The next day we said goodbye to Chris and Christine and headed off for Bottle Beach. Ash and Ade kindly let us leave our bags at their house so we only had a small rucksac each which was just as well. We got a boat from Chalokum and got to Bottle Beach only to discover that there was only 1 room available so we took it and all shared together we had 1 double bed, a single and a mattress on the floor and our own bathroom which was cool. Bottle Beach is very chilled and we watched a film
pool
in the pool at Charm on the first night and then wandered to the resort at one end of the beach where they had fire pits and fireworks although the Thai people have no concept of safety and were walking round with massive rockets in their hands and standing about 2 ft away from them when they were lit. It was fun anyway. The next day was spent lazing on the beach reading and drinking buckets Gin and tonic for myself and Stel and Samsung ones for Dito and Carol at Smile Bar. Smile Bar is another place that is apparently good for Haviana flip flops!?!?!?! Disaster was averted later in the night when I came across a kitten that the spaccy tattoo twins had let sneak into our house while being preoccupied with their new flip flops. I’m very allergic to cats and it could have gone horribly wrong so after shouting at the twins and waking a poorly Rich(he had a cold) up they removed said kitten.
Wed we headed back to Thong Sala for our last night on Koh PhaNgan. We went back to Coco for the night and they put on an Awesome BBQ for us. All free too which
Jumunji
Group Shot, Rich, Sheena, Kit, Estelle, Graham Gold, Christel and Carol was even better. We all drank and ate loads and then went WHORING as Ade likes to put it. All of us and the staff from Coco went to the girly bar down the road to drink more and play pool. Was a great night J
It was sad to leave on the Thursday morning Ade, Ash and the girls at Coco are wicked and really made our stay. Christel and Sheena came to the pier to see us off. Was very sad saying goodbye to them. Myself, Carol, Dito and Stel got on the Lompraya catamaran to pastures new….. we dropped Estelle off in Koh Tao and then the three of us headed off to Bangkok via the night bus…………………
BANGKOK
Well what can I say I loved it. And Dito you are my hero your knowledge of Bangkok is outstanding you knew how to get us everywhere so we didn’t get ripped off and exactly where and where not to go. (Thank you, thank you! But you would of thought that by the time of my 8th visit i should know how to get about!!)
We arrived in Bangkok about
1:30am and to say Carol and I were a tad grumpy about carrying our bags to the guesthouse would have been an understatement. Poor Rich survived all the “are we nearly there yet” “ are we nearly there yet now?” “cant we get a taxi” “cant we get a tuk tuk” “Is it much further” comments really really well and he got us there in one piece without getting us lost once.
We dumped our bags and went out for a drink as you do………..
Our first full day in Bangkok we planned to cram in as much as possible. We had breakfast out and then headed on to the water taxi’s to take us to the Grand Palace. We all thought we were safe with long shorts but afraid not we all had to endure the clothes provided at the palace for those unsuitably dressed. Carol and I had skirts which wasn’t too bad whilst Rich went commando in some long trousers! Nice! Esp when you gave them back in to see they didn’t wash them they were just passed onto the next sweaty farang lol.
The grand palace was awesome though, we were all totally
Bar
Estelle with no idea that Ade is behind her gobsmacked by the splendour of it all and the in the chamber of the emerald Buddha a kind of calm and peacefulness came over us all. After the palace Rich gave in to us and allowed is to get a Tuk Tuk to Wot Po, Ok it was only round the corner but it had to be done. Wat Po was pretty awesome too and Carol and I went in on our own while Rich stayed outside to get his photo taken with some Thai School Girls for their project apparently?!?!?!
After picking up their credit cards from the bank we went for something to eat and I got my first Papaya Salad - not for the faint hearted as it packs quite a punch but is definitely worth trying for those of you who like a little spice in your life. Then we happened upon an O’Neils at Happy Hour and decided it would be rude not to go in and have a beer which is when we met the Aussies. Tim, Matt, David and Scott from Adelade who were hilarious. We persuaded them to come and see a show down Pat Pong Road with us and I
pool
Pool Antics at Charm don’t think I have ever laughed so much. After haggling and arguing about the price we agreed on 300 Baht for entry and 1 beer and that we would buy another one. Tim then grabbed a table tennis bat and sat waiting at the bar. As the balls were pinged out he hit them back and it was so funny watching people at the other side of the bar ducking as the balls were flying over. One of the girls we will call her Toot Toot blew a whistle with her lady bits and Carol whistled back(the normal way) and then Toot Toot whistled back and so on lol. I have to say the razor blades were a bit much but the popping of balloons with paper darts was impressive. After the show we went shopping and boy can those Aussie boys shop they beat the poor Thai shop owners down the bare minimum so of course alcohol fuelled we jumped on the band wagon and bought loads of stuff we didn’t really need but it was fun nevertheless. On the way home we persuaded our tuk tuk drive to do a couple of wheelies which made us laugh a
pool
in the pool at Charm lot.
My final day in Bangkok……… we hired a boat to take us on a tour of the backwaters and the floating market which I have to say is much smaller than I expected but was still pretty cool to see. Carol and I did some shopping down the Koh San Road while Rich sorted out their bus tickets to Chang Mai………… we stopped off at another place for something to eat and I decided to have the Papaya Salad again - big mistake it nearly took the roof of my mouth off. Rich said if I couldn’t eat it he didn’t want to try but did and agreed it was far too hot.
We went to a restaurant nearer the guesthouse we were staying in and had my final meal whilst watching The Dark Knight, Thailand having no copyright laws has all the latest movies etc and puts them on in all the bars etc this was a particularly bad copy though and someone got up and walked across the screen halfway through lol.
I sadly left Carol and Rich that evening and will really miss them and life out in Thailand, I will let them
Food
Eating in the nightmarket again, Estelle, Christe, Sheena, Rich and Carol continue with the story in Bangkok…………………..
So Right here, i have to say thank you to Kit for typing all that up, impressive stuff!! We do actually lead rather busy lives though, and it's not sheer laziness that stops us blogging! :-)
To finish up, we stayed for only 1 more day, and actually bumped into some friends from Maidstone as we was walking down the street, you know, as you do! Sheer luck, so we decided to join them for some late night drinks at the closed Shell petrol station that turns into a bar after hours! (stu, i know you been there!) It reminded Carol too much of work though so we caught some football before retiring for the night.
We caught the overnight Bus up to Chang Mai, for a reasonable 330 baht, unfortunatley the price was reflected in the fact it wasn't the best bus, the promised TV was there, but switched off, the blankets were on the bus, but the assistant driver curled up in them and despite carols best efforts would not give them up. He actually pulled them over his head when carol started to get louder and more annoyed
Cinema
In the Cinema at Jumunji with him! Just to top it off it was freezing!
We only had 1 day on our visa left so we had to rush through Northen Thailand, we managed to get to Doi Suthep which is a temple on top of one of the mountains near Chang Mai. The views were brilliant and the temple was lovely and we regret not being able to spend a little longer exploring the area, however the visa issue pressing us we made a mad dash for the border, hoping we could make it to the Laos border before it all shut up, we made it just in time, leaving Chang Kong in Thailand at 4.30, and hiring a small boat to get us over the mekong to houyaxi on the Laos side. It meant, for some obsure reason know only to Laos, that we had to pay thier overtime to issue our visa's (1 persons overtime) and then stamp us into the country (someone elses overtime) before we were allowed to enter.
Right.....here it ends. This has been my favourite blog so far!! LOL
Take care all, and love loads,
PS thanks again Kit!
Amsterdam Bar
Waiting for sunset at Amsterdam Bar
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Diana
non-member comment
Great blog and lovin the photos, and the sunset looks gorgeous !!!